In the largest global collaboration to address the COVID-19 crisis so far, the World Health Organization, European Commission, and other partners including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), launched a new campaign to accelerate development of COVID-19 diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines – and just as critically ensure that they are affordable and accessible worldwide. […] Continue reading ->
The combined impact of Covid-19 and malaria in regions where malaria is widespread “could be catastrophic,” warned David Reddy, CEO of Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), the Geneva-based product development partnership, just ahead of World Malaria Day, which is celebrated on Saturday, 25 April. His commment to Health Policy Watch,  came in the wake of […] Continue reading ->
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there could be “a window of opportunity… that would be suicidal to miss” to revise the International Health Regulations that govern countries’ behaviour during health emergencies, said Gian Luca Burci, former World Health Organization head legal counsel and now professor of international law, at a panel hosted by […] Continue reading ->
With COVID-19 pandemic curves beginning to flatten out in many parts of the Europe, Health Policy Watch presents a snapshot of infection and death trends in WHO’s European region through graphs that tell the story, using up-to-date data from the COVID-19 tracker of the Geneva-based Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND). Notably, some striking, but […] Continue reading ->
In characteristically soft-spoken tones, World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued his strongest rebuttal yet to the recent allegations by United States President Donald Trump that the WHO had hidden information in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, or failed to inform WHO member states rapidly enough. Calling upon his own […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization experts are urging countries to use caution when determining whether to use large scale serological testing as part of their exit strategies from lockdowns. Serological testing identifies whether a person’s blood has antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,  indicating that they were exposed to the virus at some point and […] Continue reading ->
The impacts on Africa of United States President Trump’s decision to withhold funding to the WHO will be ‘quite significant’ as the US is the “number one contributor” of the WHO African Region budget, said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, at a joint press conference hosted by the WHO and the World Economic […] Continue reading ->